September 2014

The Portal has recently been recognized by several reputable organizations related to children.

Healthy Foster Care America (AAP) said this about the Portal in their August newsletter: "The Medical Home Portal, an online resource for those who provide care for children with special needs, has a new content module on children in the foster care system, intended for primary care clinicians but available to all. It includes a description of foster care, sections on clinical assessment, treatment and management, tools, and relevant services and resources for patients and their foster caregivers. The Medical Home Portal's database of local service providers for Utah, Idaho, Montana, and New Mexico may be of further assistance in connecting families to resources in those states. The Medical Home Portal is partially supported by the Utah Chapter of the AAP."

And the Maternal Child Health Bureau has recommended the Medical Home Portal as an example of a shared resource, a requirement for Title V organizations receiving the latest State Implementation (D70) grant. Utah's Bureau of Children with Special Health Care Needs is one of these grant recipients. The Medical Home Portal, along with the Utah Pediatric Partnership to Improve Healthcare Quality (UPIQ), will be helping to support care coordination for children with special health care needs in Utah. We hope to partner with other states receiving one of these grants to provide the infrastructure for their shared resource.

Major Projects Underway

• Complete redesign of the site, including adaptation to mobile platforms & enhanced accessibility. The look will be clean, easier to read, and have more intuitive navigation.
• Users can create custom lists of services & resources that can be edited, printed, saved, & shared. Lists will always have the latest information. (fall 2014)
  Clinicians, care coordinators, and families can use pre-filled lists of local service providers and customize them. Dynamically created lists based on a diagnosis and zip code are coming soon.
• Improved search and search results display will better enable you to find what you are looking for – and even more you didn't know you were looking for. (late 2014)
  Search results will be categorized as content pages, forms, tools, other links, or service providers
• A game app to help parents (and you) find resources for children with special needs (summer 2015)
  A way to quickly filter out the extra stuff to get to the service or resource your child needs now, wherever you are, via your smartphone.

by Al Romeo, RN, PhD, Pregnancy Risk Line / MotherToBaby UT

The ninth day of the ninth month – September 9th – is celebrated as International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Day to remind women to avoid alcohol during the nine months of pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Many organizations will be promoting awareness to reduce the number of children born with FASD. This month, and every month, Pediatric Medical Homes have the opportunity to reinforce this message. They also have the opportunity to help women with alcoholism seek appropriate treatment.

Together, we are all working toward the goal of reducing the number of children born with the various birth defects, developmental delays, and behavioral problems that accompany the range of FASD. For questions about alcohol use in pregnancy or breastfeeding, please contact MotherToBaby Utah at 801-328-2229 or visit www.mothertobabyut.org. For information about FAS or local resources, please visit the Medical Home Portal's State Partner Projects.